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Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Maxwell Family Papers, A&M 0311, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

Hu Maxwell (September 22, 1860-August 20, 1927), local and state historian and forester, was born in St. George, Virginia, now Tucker County, West Virginia. He was educated at home by his mother, Sarah Bonnifield Maxwell, until he was 15. He later graduated from Weston Academy (1880) and won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, but he did not complete the course.

Maxwell returned to West Virginia, where he taught school and learned the timbering business. He became editor and part owner of the Tucker County Pioneer newspaper and devoted much of the rest of his life to writing and publishing.

His histories include those for the counties of Barbour (1899), Hampshire (1897), Randolph (1898), and Tucker (1884). He contributed two short articles to History of the Mingo Indians (1921). With Richard E. Fast, he wrote The History and Government of West Virginia (1906), and he co-authored the three-volume classic, West Virginia and Its People (1913), with Thomas Condit Miller.

Maxwell combined his knowledge of timbering with his passion for study and traveled throughout the country conducting surveys for the U.S. Forest Service. In addition to government bulletins, he wrote Idyls of the Golden Shore (1889), a collection of poems about California. He also published A Tree History of the United States (1923).

Adapted from the West Virginia Encyclopedia, accessed October 7, 2020.

Scope and Contents

Papers of the Maxwell family, including correspondence, accounts, legal papers, pamphlets, and clippings. Correspondence (1863-1889) is comprised mostly of letters from Hu Maxwell, California, to Mrs. S.J. Maxwell. Subjects include mining, schools, size and social conditions of towns, ranches, weather and crop conditions, geographical oddities, Maxwell's personal living conditions, and his intentions concerning history publications. Other items include account book of Captain James L. White, showing military supplies issued for the Laurel Hill Encampment [Confederate Army], and the names and rank of officers (ca. 1861); guard report for the Laurel Hill Encampment with two lists of supplies issued (1861); a patent for an improved towel rack, issued to Rufus Maxwell (1859); and pamphlets of political speeches and legal documents (ca. 1858-1884).

Related Material

10, 311

Separated Material

Newspapers from 1849-1900 & magazines from 1856-1918 were separated--see control folder for inventory lists.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Account books
• California
• Civil War -- Confederate Army
• Laurel Hill.
• Maxwell family
• Maxwell, G. Ralph.
• Maxwell, H.
• Maxwell, Mrs. S.J.
• Maxwell, Rufus.
• Politics and government.
• Tucker County (W. Va.)
• White, Capt. James L.